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on one level or on another, on one level of consciousness or another, a route
to attention, wealth, prestige and power. Indeed, had Floon chosen to return
yet again to the civilized worlds it seems likely that that sweet, timid,
gentle creature so fearful of death would have been one of the first seized
and condemned, for the institution would have found him a dangerous
embarrassment. Certainly the ritual, the practices, the organization, the
bureaucracy, the hierarchies would have puzzled him.
Would he not have gone his own way, puzzled, shaking his head, turning away
from such things, content rather with his own simple beliefs and ways?
Thirdly, although the empire occasionally saw fit to persecute Floonians, it
never did so consistently or systematically. Such would have been
uncharacteristic. It would have been in contradiction to, and a violation of,
the general, accepted and long-sanctioned practices and policies of the
imperium. Indeed, the policy of the empire was almost invariably one of
tolerance, tolerance for the millions of faiths of the millions of worlds. It
was only later that this changed, when the Floonian phenomenon, which had for
the most part been allowed to flourish within the empire, in accordance with
the general policies of imperial toleration, became allied with the imperium.
Things then changed. The Floonian hierarchy, having been permitted to rise to
power in virtue of its own having been tolerated, now, once it was in a
position to do so, repudiated toleration, no longer needing it, and instituted
practices of consistent, systematic persecution that would have amazed and
horrified even the emperors of the civil wars, famous for their proscription
lists. Again, I do not wish to anticipate, but I will remark that the Floonian
phenomenon may not have quite the same future in this reality as it might have
had in others. Not all realities, you see, are identical. Indeed, our
protagonist,
and others like him, may have had something to do with that.
"Do not dare to look upon me," she chided.
"It is hard to feel the ropes," he said, puzzled.
"That is because of the shock of the stun stick, you barbarous dolt," she
laughed.
She then turned about and, followed by the guards, recrossed the sand. She
would ascend to the mayor's box by the throne gate, that which led to the
privileged seating. It was called that because the seats of honor were reached
through it, including the high seat, or throne, in this town occupied by the
mayor.
"So," he thought, "it may not be then that Brother Benjamin, dear Brother
Benjamin, was right. I
may only seem to be somewhere inside my body because I cannot feel as I
normally would. It is because of what they did, something which has to do with
the sticks." He found it hard to understand how a stick could strike him
without touching him. But he had heard of such things from the sailors on the
cattle vessel. Indeed, he had pressed them relentlessly, for hours at a time,
for stories, and facts, and customs. He wanted to understand the world, and
worlds. He may have been illiterate, and a soil worker, and from only a
festung village, but he was not stupid. He had an active mind, a very active
mind. The sailors had enjoyed telling him things, relishing his eagerness, his
wonder, his astonishment, and most of what they told him, interestingly, was
even true. One of the things they did not think to tell him much about was the
ship. They took it so much for granted. To him, of course, it was the greatest
wonder of all.
He saw the throne gate opened, and watched her ascend to the high seats. The
guards, within, parted from her. They took up positions at opposite ends of
the closed box. Sometimes citizens took the opportunity of the games to press
petitions into the hands of the civic authorities. Too, more than one
governor, and emperor, even, it was said, had been assassinated at the games,
though usually in the court outside the wall, or in the tunnel leading between
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the box and the street.
He looked at her taking her seat beside her mother, the high judge, who
herself sat on the right hand of the mayor. He did not think he was a dolt.
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